Pages

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Trailer time! I've spent the past few weeks deleting old movie trailers from my hard drive, and downloading brand new ones! May as well share what I've been downloading and weather the film is worth spending your $12 on when it comes out. I present in the order I've downloaded:

Howl's Moving Castle - The latest film from Hayo Miyazaki, he who gave us Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and lots of other really, really good films. It's based on the British children's novel of the same name. It follows the adventures of a young girl who's turned into an old woman by a witch's curse, and she goes on a quest to find the mysterious wizard Howl, the only man who can lift the curse. This trailer just kicks ass. It's Miyazaki, so there's lots of jaw-dropping, really, really pretty pictures. And that Joe Hisashi music is the stuff of epic romance. It was #1 in Japan when it first came out over there back in November. It'll start making the rounds through North American art houses this June.

Serenity - The eagerly anticipated movie version of the short-lived sci-fi show Firefly. I've watched a bit of Firefly in reruns, and I'll admit, it's pretty good. The movie looks to tie up all of the show's loose ends and finally explain the story of the token myterious character River. I will admit, the trailer looks good, full of lots of nifty sci-fi action, but it follows the trend of several other recent based-on-recent-TV-show-movies. (eg Rick Berman era Star Trek films). Even though it's a movie, it still looks and feels very much like an episode of the show. But as Firefly was a pretty good show, that's not necessarily a bad thing. This one comes out September 30. My guess? By that time, we'll all be burned out on Episode III and Serenity will be a nice little pick-me-up.

The Legend of Zorro - The long awaited sequel to The Mask of Zorro! Antonio Banderas is back as the legendary man in black, and Catherine Zeta-Jones is back as his legendarily hot wife. The plot this time? Banderas's character hangs up the mantle of Zorro to enter the throes of living happily ever after. But, when villains arise to prevent old California's entry into the United States of America, he is forced to come out of retirement! They got pretty much the same creative team as the first film, and it shows in the trailer. It looks like we get nothing new to "expand the mythos," but we do get lots and lots of kick-ass swordfights. Could be good. October 28 is the big day for this one.

The Dukes of Hazzard - You're probably wondering why I've wasted valuable hard drive space with this one. Well, the Dukes was one of my absolute favourite TV shows when I was a kid. My brother and I used to run around the backyard pretending we were Bo and Luke. I went to my first day of kindergarten wearing a Dukes T-shirt. So, if I ever complain about a film ass-raping my childhood, it'll be in regards to The Dukes of Hazzard. Now, when I turn off the sound and watch this trailer, it looks perfect! Lots of amazing, mind-blowing car chases; essentially the TV show to the next level, which is what I want. But, as soon as the actors start talking, I cringe. It seems that they've decided to go in the Charlie's Angels/Starsky and Hutch mold, which is make it a parody of itself. Every time the characters speak, they say some dumb joke that didn't make it into an American Pie movie. And Bo is just too stupid. To quote the one movie we're all going to be running to this summer, "I have a bad feeling about this." But then, as my mother pointed out, "People only loved that show for the car." The shit hits the fan on August 5.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get that third and final trailer for Batman Begins.